How our 21 LEDE Fellows are spreading solutions journalism around the globe
From Eugene, Oregon to Kolkata, India, meet our inaugural class of LEDE fellows.
Building the world’s first “choose-your-own adventure” solutions journalism game. Creating SJ in new, immersive, 360 virtual reality forms. Facilitating a solutions journalism training pipeline between retired journalists and high school students. These are just some of the ways that the inaugural class of LEDE fellows are spreading their creativity and passion for solutions journalism far and wide.
What is the LEDE Fellowship, exactly? It’s SJN’s first program allowing journalism entrepreneurs to create and lead projects that spread solutions journalism in their communities. And why “LEDE”? Because we sought projects that would (1) LEVERAGE the network’s expertise, (2) ENGAGE the community that the journalism informs, (3) DISSEMINATE solutions stories — and insight on how to do them, and (4) ELEVATE untold stories and unheard voices.
From October 2019 to August 2020, that’s exactly what these 21 fellows will do. Through their projects, they will collectively catalyze 150+ solutions stories, train 500+ journalists in the solutions approach, host 50+ community events, and create 20+ intelligence pieces for the greater network (that’s you!). We’re so excited for the next year.
Here’s a peek into those projects — and the people leading them. And congratulations to SJN’s first class of LEDE Fellows!
Erica Edwards (New York, New York) is a program coordinator for NYC-TV Life — a public and municipally operated TV station. When she’s not thinking about affecting change in the world, she’s likely playing Catan with friends.
Erica will build a YouTube channel called “In The Works.” The channel will be a hub for solutions video stories across the country and she’ll also lead an effort to produce short, video-based solutions stories in and about New York City. Her goal is to have a place where the public can find and experience solutions video stories all in one place.
Allison Frost (Portland, Oregon) is an award-winning public media producer and solutions journalism practitioner who is fascinated with people and all the curious and creative things they do. She works as the senior producer of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “Think Out Loud” daily talk show and lives in Portland with her husband and their two children.
This year, Allison will build “Better and How”, a podcast — and a lifeline. Though the news explores problems that look unsolvable; “Better and How” will show how people are solving them. It will ask and answer the question: Who’s doing it better, and how are they doing it? “Better and How” will tackle serious issues, but with an empowering, engaging, entertaining twist. “Better and How” will tell reported stories about how these solutions work: what happened here that didn’t happen elsewhere? And listeners will hear from a lively, celebrity-studded peanut gallery that each week will discuss the solution and vote on whether it’s a keeper. “Better and How” will provide inspiring, possibility-busting-open reports and analysis of about the world we thought we knew — but didn’t.
Caleb Somtochukwu Okereke (Kampala, Uganda) is a Nigerian journalist and filmmaker working out of Kampala, Uganda. He has written and produced features for the BBC, Al Jazeera, and Deutsche Welle.
Caleb will build Minority Africa — a digital publication providing solutions content on African minority communities and persons, using a multimedia approach that is data-driven, immersive (360 videos, virtual reality) and highly interactive. The publication is designed as a response to the underreported nature of interventions by African minorities in mainstream media. It will combine reporting with community engagement through Immerse events, a screening of Minority Africa’s features across African cities and communities, and will also provide a learning lab containing short courses by experts on solutions journalism from a minority perspective.
Dina Aboughazala (Cairo, Egypt) is a bilingual digital journalist with over 10 years of experience at the BBC. She has worked in Addis, London and Cairo, covering Arabic media stories, Middle East politics as well as jihadist groups, but her passion has always been for human and social stories. Therefore, when she first came across SJ in 2016, she immediately fell for it.
Dina will introduce SJ to the Egyptian media landscape by providing a multimedia platform for SJ stories and training local journalists. The project aims to be the launchpad for spreading SJ not only in Egypt but to the entire Middle East region.
Chibuike Alagboso (Jabi Abuja, Nigeria) works as a health journalist for Nigeria Health Watch, a health communication and advocacy organization based in Nigeria’s capital city. He is passionate about using the transformative power of the media and storytelling to positively impact his community.
His project will leverage photojournalism to tell solutions stories of community responses to problems around health, climate change and food insecurity in Nigeria. He will also engender conversations and create a community around solutions journalism to encourage its practice in Nigeria.
Michael Coren (San Francisco, California) is a technology and business reporter for Quartz and has been working on climate issues for more than a decade. He was the editor of Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Post, the science editor at CNN.com and studied environmental science and economics at Yale.
Michael will build OnePointFive (working title) — a high-quality print magazine focused exclusively on solutions to the climate crisis. The magazine will provide steps for people ready to take action on climate with journalism as engaging as it is inspiring. Every issue links to in-person and online groups to connect a community and catalyze action. People often ask, “What can we do about climate change?” OnePointFive is their answer.
Julia Migné (Oxford, England) is an endless traveller currently based in Oxford and the co-founder of INKLINE, an international media platform that features solutions-focused news and interviews with organizations that champion social cultural causes. She specializes in environmental issues and loves sharing conservation success stories.
INKLINE’s project includes getting journalists from around the globe to write six in-depth features, highlighting a range of innovative solutions being developed in different continents to mitigate the impact that the climate crisis is having or might soon have on local communities. The idea will be to get a long read per key geographical region so that readers can get a flavor of the different strategies being developed and how they might differ between regions. The second aspect of the project will involve the organisation of workshops with local communities in Oxford, Manila, and Bangalore to get people to think about what they think is the most effective way of tackling the issue. Mixing journalists, scientists and activists, the workshops will also include brainstorming sessions discussing the topic of how reporting on climate solutions can affect both journalists and society.
Sahana Ghosh (Kolkata, India) is a science journalist who loves to explore the human-environment-animal-policy interface and how science can be put into action in diverse landscapes overarching domains such as health, climate, human and animal rights.
The goal of her project is to scale up Mongabay India’s “Environment and Her” series by producing at least seven environmentally focused solutions stories on issues affecting women in a changing climate. She’ll achieve this through the involving and engaging local journalists — training them in solutions approach and broadcasting their stories to the greater community in innovative ways.
Kate Stein (Miami, Florida) helps journalists, local governments, scientists and non-profits educate Floridians on climate change risks and response plans. She’s a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and she’s written and produced stories for NPR, Scientific American and The New Republic, among others.
Kate will build the Climate 101 for Journalists and Newsrooms program in Florida. Through it, she will empower reporters, editors and producers with tools and skills to cover human stories of climate change and the responses underway in their communities. In two-hour workshops, participants learn about global and local climate change impacts and best practices for climate reporting; they discuss story ideas and how to incorporate solutions journalism into climate coverage on any beat. After the initial training, participants are supported in developing town halls around their work.
Keren Landman (Atlanta, Georgia) is an award-winning freelance radio and print journalist and a physician specializing in infectious diseases and public health. Her work focuses on health disparities related to HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and LGBTQ issues.
Keren will lead a project with VOX ATL, an outlet for uncensored, teen-authored print, digital, and audiovisual journalism, to make solutions journalism a part of future journalists’ skill sets. In addition to mentoring several teens one-on-one, she will lead solutions journalism skill-building workshops targeted at VOX teens/alumnae, local journalists, and area high school journalism students. Teen journalists’ work will be published online and in VOX’s print publication, and some may be co-published by WABE 90.1 FM, an Atlanta NPR station.
Martin Pratt (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is co-publisher of Philly Your Black News, a local print magazine launching October 2019. He is also a 2019 Poynter-Koch Journalism Fellow. In 2008 he created the first Twitter account with the word “black” — @iluvblackwomen, was one of the original creators of what is affectionately known today “#BlackTwitter”, and is the proud husband of one of the best psychics in Philly, @TheBayouOracle.
Philly Your Black News is a local print and digital magazine for Black Citizens over 50, who are living in Philadelphia. 50% of all stories in the magazine will be solutions journalism stories.
His project’s goal to build a intergenerational journalism pipeline connecting Gen Z, Millienials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers while also providing home for Returning Citizens who are Reentry Fellows.
Amy Schoenfeld Walker (Hamden, Connecticut) teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on digital reporting and design, community engagement, investigative reporting and emerging technology at Quinnipiac University. Previously she worked as a New York Times journalist on data-driven stories, infographics and multimedia.
This year, she’ll continue to build The Hamden Hunger Project — a collaboration of students, faculty and a hyperlocal news outlet to report on hunger and related solutions in Hamden, Connecticut. The project is focused on listening to and engaging with the local community to respond to neighbors’ critical information needs through “story booths”, texting services, and more. Amy’s plan is to produce more rigorous solutions stories about local responses to food insecurity and related issues. Nonprofits, teachers and local politicians are actively looking for solutions to hunger and beyond as part of a newly formed task force — Amy’s project will document their work and elevate the voices of those who aren’t at the table yet.
Israel Balderas (Palm Beach, Florida) is a veteran journalist, media law professor and attorney. Recently, he branched out into film producing. In 2017, Balderas co-led a team of students majoring in journalism, film and intracultural studies to Northern Jordan and produced an award-winning documentary on the plight of Syrian refugees. “Four Families in Mafraq”reveals painful memories of families fleeing a civil war; now, they struggle with suffering and loss, living near the Zaatari refugee camp. With a news career spanning two decades, Balderas has worked as an anchor/reporter at local news stations in Texas, North Carolina and Florida. He was a producer at FOX News Channel, Associated Press Latin America and Reuters. Nominated for several Emmy awards — winning one for best continuing coverage — Balderas has also won multiple Florida AP Broadcasters Awards.
Israel’s proposed project involves the student-led newsroom Balderas advises at Palm Beach Atlantic University. The Beacon Today teamed up with an affiliate of the American Heart Association in Palm Beach County. “Project Community” partners with universities located in the Southeast U.S. whose students produce news videos. The storytellers investigate social determinants impacting people’s health; first, they interview ordinary people struggling to overcome these ills, then, using data-driven journalism, they ask how community leaders work towards solutions. Student reporters, under Balderas’ supervision, preserve journalistic independence by adopting solutions journalism principles.
Lisa Waananen Jones (Pullman, Washington) teaches visual journalism at The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. She specializes in news graphics and data reporting, and the relationship between local and national news perspectives.
This project involves bringing a solutions journalism focus to two large-scale student journalism activities, one related to photo essays and one related to rural reporting. The rural reporting project is anchored by an annual reporting event called the Rural Reporting Plunge, which sends teams of student journalists to a dozen small towns to find story ideas based on the elements of solutions journalism. This involves more than 50 students across multiple courses, and stories are further reported throughout the year. The photo essay project, involving a visual communication course with about 80 students each semester, will challenge students to think critically about visual symbolism and take on serious topics without stereotypical portrayals of heroes and victims.
Veronica Johnson (Detroit, Michigan) is a Project Manager for Issue Media Group, a Detroit-based media company that publishes local online magazines about growth, investment, and the people leading cities across the country into the new economy. Veronica serves as a support system for On the Ground, which is a program that helps increase the communications capacity of organizations and non-profits in a particular community. Veronica received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 2011 and received her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Wayne State University in May 2017.
The goal of this project is to engage and connect Detroit area high school students with professional journalists through an editorial workshop. The students will learn about solutions journalism and how to incorporate this form of journalism into their writing for their school newspapers and future writing assignments. The students will also receive mentorship from the journalists that may choose to continue after the workshop takes place. During the workshop, the students will come up with a topic of interest in their community that they want to write about and will work in groups to each produce one story that will be published in Model D, a Detroit-based online publication that focuses on talent, job growth and economic development in the city. The stories will be published as part of an editorial youth series in Model D Media.
Camilla Mortensen (Eugene, Oregon), Ph.D., is editor of Eugene Weekly, an alternative newsweekly in Lane County, Oregon. She also teaches writing and journalism at Lane Community College.
Camilla’s project will bring solutions journalism to community college journalism students in Oregon and publish the stories in both Eugene Weekly and the community college’s paper, The Torch. The goal is to engage the students and the community they live in to address local and educational issues and their possible solutions.
Jem Collins (London, England) is the founder and editor of Journo Resources, a UK non-profit which aims to help young people break into and progress within journalism. She is also a freelance journalist, focusing on human rights, lifestyle and the media industry, with bylines in the i Paper, Metro.co.uk, PinkNews and more.
As part of the LEDE fellowship Jem will be building the world’s first choose your own adventure game based on solutions journalism. Hosted on Journo Resources, the game will allow you to play the role of a busy desk journalist trying to incorporate solutions journalism into their reporting. The game will give real-time feedback on your decisions, as well as pointing you to deeper resources. We’ll also be launching an interactive workshop to accompany the game, which will be taken on tour across the UK and Ireland, as well as collecting the solutions journalism we inspire to showcase to the world.
Ashley Okwuosa (New York, New York) is a Nigerian journalist and a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School. Her stories on immigration, education, and gender have been published in The Boston Globe, WNYC, Quartz, OZY, Popula, and Latterly.
For her fellowship, Ashley will build Maternal Figures — an open-source database of maternal health interventions implemented in Nigeria. Reports show that Nigeria contributes about 20% of the global maternal deaths, and through Maternal Figures, her database will document the different projects, apps, policies that have been put in place in the last 20 years to help reduce the number of women who die during childbirth in Nigeria. With the looming global sustainable development goal to reduce the maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, her project’s aim is to provide a repository of information for Nigerian journalists looking to cover this issue closely.
Lucie Cerna (Prague, Czech Republic) works for Transitions where she is leading a program promoting Solutions Journalism in Central and Eastern Europe. She is involved in the topic since 2017, currently she is also a trainer and mentor to journalists in the Central & Eastern Europe helping them to bring solutions lens to their reporting practice.
At Transitions , Lucie will continue to raise awareness about Solutions Journalism and provide trainings, mentoring and support for journalists in Central and Eastern Europe who want to get involved. To date, she has helped to include a solutions-oriented perspective in the reporting practice of journalists in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia. In addition to supporting local solutions stories, she will continue to focus on collaboration with journalism schools and universities to implement solutions journalism into their curricula. She’ll also provide capacity building and trainings for educators as well as lectures for journalism students from around the region.
Mpindi Abaas (Kampala, Uganda) is the CEO of the Media Challenge Initiative, a youth-driven non-profit building the next generation of journalists in Uganda. Mpindi believes that good journalism can make the world a better place through the stories journalists tell and how they tell them. Under MCI, Mpindi runs the Media Academy, with a TV and Radio accelerator space for training journalism students who do not have access to practice facilities in their universities. He also coordinates the next gen journalist project that includes a youth journalism fellowship program.
Abaas’ solution journalism project aims at building a network of young journalists committed to producing SOJO content in Uganda. Through a fellowship, young journalists will be supported to produce solution journalism content for “Thingsthatworkuganda.com.
Giselle Green (London, England) is a former BBC radio news journalist who worked as a reporter on local radio and as a producer on national current affairs programmes. More recently she set up and ran Constructive Voices, a project championing constructive journalism to media folk and students and creating a bank of potential solutions stories for journalists. These were sourced from charities, social enterprises and other innovating organizations. Her current day-job is head of press for the candidate running to be the first female and first Liberal Democrat Mayor of London in 2020.
Giselle’s project is “Solutions Central” — a London-based community of editors, journalists, academics, and others interested in engaging with solutions journalism. The aim is to involve citizens and journalists tag-teaming solutions stories. There’s already plenty happening to inform and train journalists about solutions journalism. This project is about solutions journalism reaching ‘ordinary people’. She will hold local events to spread the word and inspire ‘citizen journalists’ who want to take things further and surface their own solutions stories. She’ll link them up with professional journalists so together they can generate solutions-focused stories for publication.
Got an idea for a LEDE Fellowship project? Drop a note here and join the Hub to stay in touch about when we’ll next open up applications.